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This Week in Ontario Edublogs

One of the advantages of being the co-chair of the ECOO / OASBO ICT Bring IT Together Conference is that I have to monitor the workshop submission proposals as they come in. BTW, the closing date is approaching…

Anyway, the great topic submissions show what great thinking Ontario Educators are doing about their profession. The same thing happens when you take a look at their blogging. It’s always a pleasure to do the reading. Here’s a few that caught my eye this past week.

One of the messages explaining the rationale for all the web work that we do is that we use it to meet the students half way. Students, generally, are comfortable in their network communities and certainly everyone has a Google account which gives access to Communities. It’s not something new to learn; it’s just an easy transition for students and I think that this explains the immediate success that GAFE boards have had. Colleen Rose shares her thoughts about using the tools for communication at a number of different levels and to different groups. I found it to be an exciting read and I think quite nicely summarizes a great deal of why people are doing what they do. Read the post and see if you don’t agree.

You know, if you’re going to steal an idea, you can’t go far wrong with stealing from Oprah Winfrey.

Kristi Kerry Bishop uses being tired as a launch pad to some reflection about gratitude for what’s happening in education. I had to read the post 2 or 3 times to make sure that I understood the jump in her thinking and I like that she landed on searching the positive. It’s not nearly as physically draining as dealing with the negative and certainly, the negative isn’t that hard to find. This is a great read and it’s just faith in humanity that her friends jumped in with support in the comments.

When you’re done reading that post, check out the previous one about hiring Harry Connick Jr. Much more to think about…

Cathy Beach sent me a Twitter message a few days ago that was so obscure. It linked back to this post on her blog and reading it still didn’t really clear things up in my mind. I thought maybe she had finally lost it!

What the post was, however, was a launchpad to a series of posts from her asking us to think about the future. Not about what we’re going to have for supper, but 10 years down the road. Interesting…

Doing this was a great deal more difficult that I thought it was going to be. When approached by the ladies involved, I thought – Great! I don’t have to do any thinking for a couple of days. I’ll just copy and paste their work. Ha! They had taken the time to entrust me with their thinking and I wanted to make sure that it formatted properly and looked right. For the first time, blogging was actually work!

But, I’m glad that I did it – there was some good reaction to their posts and I think both delivered a message that was timely and relevant.

Great stuff again, folks. Thanks to the bloggers above for some great thinking and sharing. I’m hoping to see them go the next step at the Bring IT Together Conference.

Check out their posts at the links above and, please, check out the entire list of Ontario Edubloggers here. I am admitting that I’m finding some abandoned content in there. Rather than deleting them, I’m hoping that they’re just taking a break and will be back. If you’re a Ontario blogger yourself or you know of one that’s not here, please fill out the form on the page and I’ll get it added.

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2 thoughts on “This Week in Ontario Edublogs”

Hey Doug,
Just wanted to let you know that we’re home and on the mend. My son is recovering from his illness, and we’re exhausted from nearly a week of round-the-clocking at the hospital. Our daughter is back with us again after an extended stay at grandma’s house. We’re so grateful to have our family back together and to be on the road of recovery.